Apparatus for developing and regulating water-supply



N'o. 6|4,653. Patented Nov. 22, |898. H. V. HINCKLEY. APPARATUS FOR DEVELOPING AND REGULATING WATER SUPPLY.

(Application led Oct. S0, 1897.) (No Model.)

NITED STATES PATENTA Critics.

HOWARD v.'H1NcKLEY, oF'rornKA, KANsAs.

APPARATUS FOR DEVELOPING AND REGULATVING WATER-SUPPLY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 614,653, dated November 22, 1898.

Application filed October 80, 1897. Serial No. 656,9041 (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may ,con/cern:

Be it known that I, HowAR'D V. HINCKLEY, of Topeka, in the county of Shawnee and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for the Development and Regulation of Water-Supply, of which the following is a specification.

The prime object of my invention is to provide a practical and satisfactory means for drawing water at pleasure from the subterranean flood-plane or underflow, more particularly in arid and semiarid districts, such as exist in some of the Western States and Territories of the United States.

I attain my object bythe system or apparatus shown in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a profile or vertical section of a valley or other sloping country in which I locate a series of wells or cri-bs to serve as water collectors connected by pipes that serve as outlets and conveyors. Fig. 2 is a plan of one of such wells, showing devices therein contained for regulating the l'low into and from the well. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of well, showing the means for regulating the flow from it into the conduit or conveyer that connects adjacent wells and extends to the common outlet of all the wells. Fig. 4 is a side view of the form of a gate I employ.

Referring to Fig. 1, the wells W are built in the shape of cupolas for the following reasons: The larger the bottom of a well the greater the influx per minute. The smaller the top of the well above ground the less will be the obstruction to the flow of the river in case the well is located within the limits of the river-channel. The smaller the top the less material used in construction. The same reaf sons apply to the manhole or shaft extending from each crib C to the surface.

lVI is the manhole or shaft of the cribs C; G, a gravity-conduit that connects adjacent wells.

duit. S is a vertically-sliding gate. K is a V is a stop gate or valve in such con.

be open at the bottom and will invariably be tight on their sides. The wells will have walls of stone, Portland cement, concrete, or brick masonry from top to bottom. The cribs will be of wood and the shafts M may be brick or steel cylinders asphalted. The water-level being normally at A B will be lowered by the efflux from the wells or cribs by way of the conduit G, so that these manhole-shafts and cupolas extending up to the surface will not always be under water,and their construction,

therefore, to be permanent must not be of woodvunless the latter be creosoted or otherwise preserved.

Referring to Fig. 2, the gate-box K surrounds the ends of both the upper and lower sections of the conduit that enter a well, so that it may exclude water of the well from the conduit entirely. This gate-box K may rest upon two large tilnbers or two -T-rails extending across the wellr at right angles to the conduit, the ends thereof being embedded in the walls of the well.

If the gate-valve in upstream section of conduit be closed and the slide-gates be closed, no water can run in the downstream section, even though the other gate-valve Vbe open. It is evident that the object of these Vtwo gate-valves is the same 3 in other Words,either of them controls the flow through the conduit from one well to the next. I use one at each endof each conduit-section simply as a matter of safety, since if one is out of order the other can do the work while the first is being repaired; or if the slide-gates S or lift-gate L are out of order the lower gate V may be used either to keep the water quiet by stopping the flow or to open the conduit and so drain the well to the lowest possible limit. Vith the gate-valves V open and the slide-gates S and lift-gate L closed in a particular well the water in that well remainsl undisturbed and the water from any well above such one may be made to iiow through and past this well without interference. In this way the capacity of any well for furnishing water may be determined by gravity-flow through the conduit. Again, the upper gate-valve V may be closed and the lower one opened, the gates L and S opened, and the 'capacity of this well be thus tested. By opening gates at pleasure in different wells or cribs any IOO desired amount of water (within the maximum limit of the entire plant) may be supplied through the conduit to the common point of discharge A. By closing the gate V at lower end of each conduit-section that section may be kept full of water and so, in case of a wooden pipe, be protected from decay. The gate-valve I prefer to have of the common form-such, for example, as the Ludlow flume-valve. (Shown in Fig. 4t.) This is geared to turn by a nut over a small toothed wheel. A long iron rod or gas-pipe with square head to fit over this nut and with a wheel or cross-arm on its upper end could rest continually upon this nut with its upper end within reach of the top of the manholeshaft.

The slide-gates S can be made of any width from a few inches to several feet and may be pulled up and pushed down by a piece of lumber which is the gate itself extended upward to the top of the manhole-shaft. The lift-gate L (shown in Fig. 2) may be one or several gates lifted and weighted same as shown in Fig. 3. The purpose of making the mouth of the lower conduit-section of each well funnel-shaped is this: The water from the upper section of the conduit to the lower in a well meets with no resistance, while the water from such well meets with no resistance in passing into the lower section when the gates S and L are open; but, on the other hand, the water iowin g through tends to suck in the water from this well on the principle of an injector. As the gravity-cond uit will be an expensive institution and the fall in feet per mile will be light it becomes necessary to attain the highest possible percentage of efficiency, and this the funnel end attains.

The bottom of the wall or sides of well or crib will be several feet below the bottom ofl the excavation inside thereof. This is a precaution necessary to prevent sand from boiling up in the well under pressure of the outside water. The conduit will always be several feet above the bottom of the excavation, so that sand may not be drawn into the conduit bythe eddying motion of the water. The conduit may be of dry or cemented masonry, concrete, brick or cement pipe, burned clay Sewer-pipe, wrought or cast iron or other metallic pipe7 or a lumber flume or boxing, or sheet-piling shored and covered; but it will generally be of wooden-stave pipe girdled with bands or rods of iron, steel, copper, or other metal such as is commonly used and designated as wooden pipe. Tunnels may be run out from the wells or chambers in any direction to assist in collecting the water. The slope of the conduit between the wells or cribs will generally, but not necessarily, be the same slope as that of the country or the surface above them. The wells or cribs, or both, in connectionrwith the conduit, gates, 85o., may discharge the developed supply by the gravity-conduit to the surface of the ground, or, where necessary, a pump or pumps may be erected over or near the lower well or crib in the series, and the water be thus elevated to the surface by mechanical means, or the gravity-conduit may carry the water to some point downstream from the lower well and deliver the water directly to the pump.

In reference to Fig. l in the drawings it may be explained that it necessarily shows the wells arranged on somewhat exaggerated vertical scale, since otherwise the outlet A could not be shown. The Wells do not extend in a straight line up and down the river-bed. In some arid regions there are water-slopes, at a right angle to the direction of the river, as steep as thirty feet to the mile, as has been determined by my own measurements. The line of wells may or may not follow the river course. There are localities where the slope of the surface is many times steeper and the water-supply is many times greater up the lateral slopes than up the river-bed. The wells need not be below or lower than any river-bed. They must be below the waterlevelt`. e., submerged.

What I claim is- 1. In a subterranean water-suppl y apparatus the combination with a well or water-collecting chamber of a box provided with inletvalves and located in said well and supported above the bottom thereof, an eduction-water conduit leading out of said box, and having a funnel-mouth within the latter, and a second or induction conduit which leads into the box and enters the mouth of the lower conduit, as shown and described.

2. A water-supply apparatus consisting of two or more cupola-shaped wells, or cribs, with connecting conduits, all located and submerged in a natural reservoir of subterranean water and provided `with a gravitydischarge as described, for the purpose of developing and regulating the supply of underground water.

3. A water-supply apparatus consisting of a submerged well or crib, having a cupola or manhole-shaft M, an induction-gravity conduit having a funnel end II, and the gatevalve V, as shown and described, for developing and regulating the supply of water un dcrground, as shown and described.

4. The combination of a series of submerged wells, or cribs, and a series of inclined conduits connecting the same for drawing off the water therefrom, by gravity, gatevalves V, located in such conduits, a box having slidegates, and lift-gates, and means for operating such gates, as shown and described for the purpose of developing and regulating the flow of underground water.

IIOVARD V. IIINCKLEY.

"Witnesses:

W. A. NEIswANGEn, Guo. TEACHER.

Ico 

